Passionate Moderates

It is time that we in our right minds, meaning all those who are not out on the fanatical fringes of issues became more passionate about demanding attention be paid to the center. There is so much babble about red states and blue states, the right-wing and left-wing, and virtually no one paying attention to those who are intelligent enough and reasonable enough to listen to both sides of an issue, and make up their minds not based on a label, but based on the facts of the particular case.

Moderate has come to be synonymous with dispassionate; and that has to stop. It is unreasonable to disregard the wishes of the majority. It is also unreasonable to simply cast minorities, the weak, the elderly, out to sea because they do not have numbers to speak for themselves.

I remember hearing Harry Brown, the Libertarian candidate for President, repeatedly state in previous election years that were he elected, he would get rid of the IRS, get rid of the Public Schools, that he would get rid of our drug laws, then take a break for lunch. That kind of rhetoric doesn't take into account that the President must govern all of the country. You don't get to just implement whatever those who voted for you want; you must go through the appropriate checks and balances, and Congress (Democrats and Republicans) would never approve those sweeping changes, nor should they.

Worst of all such statements betray a simplistic idealism, as do most fanatics, that do not take into account the incredibly complex layering of our economy, the inter-dependent nature of our laws, our fiscal policy, and the businesses and families which plan their expenditures and adventures around existing laws and public structures.